148 F. G. YOUNO. 1849. This failure was repeated at a special session held the following spring. 44 During the second regular session, how- ever, on February 1, 1851, an act was passed selecting not only the place to be the capital, but also others as locations for the penitentiary and the university. 45 The measure also con- stituted boards of commissioners with authority to proceed with the erection of a state house and a penitentiary. Congress had, on June 11, 1850, added $20,000 to the Oregon public buildings fund, and a like amount was given for a penitenti- ary. But now it was the Governor 's turn to balk. He had not been consulted in selecting the locations, whereas the language of the act making the later appropriations gave him concurrent right with the Legislative Assembly in designating these places. The Governor took the ground that the act was not a law of the Territory because it embraced more than one object, which was a violation of the Organic Act. The con- sequent deadlock lasted more than a year. When the time arrived for the next session of the legislature and of the Supreme Court, it found a large majority of both houses and one justice of the supreme bench assembled at the newly desig- nated capital, while the Governor and his appointees and two judges tarried at Oregon City, the erstwhile seat or govern- ment. In May, 1852, Congress broke the deadlock by ratify- ing the "location law." The Governor then, thinking the matter of beginning operations with the public buildings urgent and supplementary legislation necessary, hastily called the legislature into special session, in July, 1852. The demo- cratic legislature, however, found "no extraordinary business and nothing which might not more properly be brought for- ward at a regular session," and in contempt of the federal whig appointee from the East, adjourned sine die without action. 46 So it was not until nearly the close of the fourth regular session, January 22, 1853, that adequate legislation 44 See Judge Pratt's opinion on the "Location Law," Appendix to C. J., Third Session, pp. 7-33. 45 Oregon Statutes, Second Session, pp. 222-223. 46 House Journal, Special Session, July 26, 1852, p. 17.
